[Learn]How to Overclock a Nvidia Card

**mesce** · 02:14 PM

9XXX/8XXX Series Cards
Software:

RivaTuner - Used for tweaking display, overclock settings, fan speeds, monitoring temps, etc.
ATiTool - Used for testing stability to find max GPU/Mem overclock
GPU-Z - Used for reporting results and looking up GPU model info
NiBiTor - Used for modifying bios. Bioses can raise the max GPU core voltage and edit default fan speeds. Use with caution!

Temps:

Recommended temp <85°
Maximum card temp 110°

RivaTuner:

To customize fan speeds via RivaTuner, do this.

Overclocking:

Raise each setting gradually until you start to see artificating in ATITool or another program that tests for artifacts
Max out your core speed first, followed by shaders and then memory. Increasing your core will net the single biggest gain.
Adjusting Core through ATiTool will adjust shader clock as well. Shader must be unlinked and set in RivaTuner to adjust independently. If you want to keep things simple, you can leave the core and shaders linked.

To give an idea of the gains from overclocking each card feature, here are some sample FPS @ 1680x1050 on an 8800GTS 512MB, all settings but "Objects" at high for 3 runs, using the Crysis Benchmarking Tool:
Default: 29.95fps (670 Core | 1674 Shaders | 972 Mem)
Max GPU: 31.95fps (820 Core | 1674 Shaders | 972 Mem)
Max Shaders: 31.37fps (670 Core | 2075 Shaders | 972 Mem)
Max Mem: 31.17fps (670 Core | 1674 Shaders | 1080 Mem)
Max All: 34.35fps (795 Core | 2025 Shaders | 1080 Mem)

For a more detailed step-by-step guide on overclocking nVidia cards, BenchZone has a walk through for 8XXX series cards.

Legacy nVidia Cards
There are many many thread asking this. In your nvidia driver control panel there is a hidden feature which allows you to overclock and monitor your clockspeeds(COOLBITS). I have attached below a the program that you can use to monitor these changes. Just extract the file and double click it so it adds itself to the registry. No more threads on how to overclock and asking what should i expect. Every card is different and like john said below do it in increments. Also once you go to the overclocking bit in the driver control panel, it will say 2d and 3d speed. Upping the 2d clocks will do nothing you must choose the 3d clocks then start upping in increments.

Please Read Carefully Below, Many thanks and all credit of this thread goes to John Spit

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_spit010

I am getting pretty bored of answering "How do I overclock my...."
"What program do i use..." I'm sure others are getting bored too.
So this thread will show you exactly how to overclock your video card.

First thing you must do is download an overclocking program like Rivatuner, Powerstrip, rage 3d tweak, etc. Dont ask which one is the best, try them yourself and see which one works best for you. Coolbits is a registry edit that enables overclocking in Nvidia cards.

Second thing is now go into the overclocking program and there should be 2 sliders: one for core and the other for memory. (If using coolbits oc in the third tab not second). Now first just work with the core. Move the slider about 5-10mhz and then go into 3d mark 2003 and check for 'snow' if there are some then ur card is oced to high also check if it locks up if so back down about 5mhz and recheck. If there is no snow then you're good to overclock further. So repeat by increasing another 5-10mhz until you reach your maximum with no 'snow or artifacts'. Also, once u have reached the maximum it is a good idea to check your temps.

Now to the memory, firstly return your core to stock. Now move the memory slider about 5-10mhz and check in 3d mark 03 for any artifacts. Repeat until you get artifacts.

Now return your core to the oced speeds u had before in order to make sure the oced core and memory work together. Run 3d mark 2003 a few times to see if you have any artifacts or any sort of problems. It is also a good idea to play an intensive 3d game for bout an hour to check for any signs of problems.

If you get artifacts or other problems then back down both the core a memory a bit. Keep doing that until you get the most stable speeds.

With that done you've finished. Everything has worked out good and you have succesfully oced your card. If you want to oc further then you will have to buy better cooling. Eg. Water cooling, VGA silencer...etc and some ram sinks if you do not have some already.

Some people ask "how far can i go?" and "why cant i get the same clocks as my friend and both of us have the same card?"

Q1 Ans: We can not tell you how far your card can go, as every card is different and you will have to try yourself.

Q2 Ans: As I said no two cards are exactly the same.

For more information pm John_spit010. Or if I have missed somethig out or I should change something tell me.
Also any overclocking you do is at your own risk.

Many thanks go to John for using his time and effort. Please read this and any posts asking how to overclock will be deleted and you will be referred to this.

To measure your overclock use 3dmark01/03/05. It will also be able to tell you if it is stable and also what benefits the overclock has done to your graphics card.

If you max out the core or push the core too far you will get artifacts or random restarts. If the core hits a certain temperature, its different for all cards but you may experience artifacts and random restarts again. Cooling the graphics card will allow you to max out your core but how far is upto how well the core is. Artifacts can be little black dots/white dots/polygon corruption. Doing a Vcore mod will often net you 30mhz more but is only suggested if you have good cooling

With the memory if you overclock that too far you will have polygons flying all over the place (stretched) quite far, as well as the normal artifacts of different pixel colours almost all over your screen. Cooling the memory will fix the pixel colour artifacts but the stretched polygons mean that you have hit the limit of the memories capabilities or the extra speed on the memory is capped by voltage by the manufacture.

The FAQ is from somewhere at Guru3d.
Spiked and I think that you should beware of these problems.

FAQ:
--------

Q. I dont see the temperature settings, is this due to my card?
A. The temp settings panel is only available with cards equipped with thermal sensors. Some cards that I know of have temp sensors are 5700 Ultra, 5800 Ultra, 5900 non-Ultra and Ultra, and 5950 ultra. But really it all comes down to the manufacturer. I have seen some 5700 and 5900 without temp sensor, but mainly the cheaper XT/LX/SE versions.

Q. The Fan always on doesn`t seem to work
A. The 'fan always on' option is for cards with the OTES (i.e. 5800U) or similar cooling system in which shuts off in 2d mode. It will force fan on even in 2D mode. Of course this means the fans on the hs/f be designed such a way that this option can work.

Q. I thought it enabled Opengl 2.0. It doesn't though.
A. OpenGL Shading Language 2.0 can only be enabled on 55.xx and higher Forceware drivers. It had not yet been implemented in older Detonator or pre 55 Forceware drivers.

Q. Where is the application profiles page?
A. It has been disabled to allow for OpenGL and Direct3d tabs. You can re-enable the application profiles page by changing its respective value to 1 in the coolbits file.

If you experience any minor problems, simply uninstall/reinstall your display driver. I would recommend using Driver Cleaner as well, especially when switching driver versions.

Unpack the achive (self extracting) and then in the setup directory simply click on the .reg file. To get to these options simply right-click on your desktop and go to 'NVIDIA Analog Display' (Win XP/2003). For Win 2000 and lower you may need to get to the Nvidia Control Panel the old way. Right click desktop > Properties > Settings > Advanced > GeForce xxxx

*NOTE: Coolbits 2 is not fully compatible with driver versions older than 55.xx. If you do happen to run this tweak with drivers older than 55.xx you will more than likely get errors at startup! To enable full compatibility, you must disable the options that are causing issues with your current setup.

Korpse · 12-29-2004, 02:53 PM

cheers for this

coolbits2 certainly does rock compared to coolbits1

oli3 · 01-10-2005, 10:34 AM

this surely solved my problem. now i can oc my fx5200 atlast to gain some more torque from this old donkey .!.

Coolbits truly rocks hard.!.!.!.!

Ozz81 · 01-13-2005, 01:52 PM

definitely...been using coolbits since I had my old GeForce 3 Ti500, it's nice to have an OC tool within the graphics properties for Nvidia instead of having to get an entirely different program to OC with (i.e. Rage3D, Powerstrip, etc.)

7Enigma · 01-24-2005, 09:03 AM

One reason why I do like Rivatuner better than coolbits (I did use coolbits first), is because Rivatuner will plot temperatures over time in a graphical format allowing you to see where the temp peaks. I was shocked to see how quickly the temp drops when not on load (compared to a A64 or P4 CPU for example), and when using coolbits even if I was really quick to exit 3dmark, the temps woulds till be off a couple degrees. Using rivatuner I was able to plot the temps during every scene and it made me reevaluate my overclock.

Another thing which I didn't see mentioned is what program to test overclocks. I had originally used 3dmark05 thinking since this was the newest it would stress my new 6800GT the most, turns out I was wrong. 3dmark03 actually caused the temps to be about 6-10degrees higher than 3dmark05. I would recommend using 3dmark03 then with another program as well (your choice) to assess whether the overclock is safe (not just by snow/artifacts, but for the longevity of the card).

justin

BamaStangGuy · 01-24-2005, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Another thing which I didn't see mentioned is what program to test overclocks. I had originally used 3dmark05 thinking since this was the newest it would stress my new 6800GT the most, turns out I was wrong. 3dmark03 actually caused the temps to be about 6-10degrees higher than 3dmark05. I would recommend using 3dmark03 then with another program as well (your choice) to assess whether the overclock is safe (not just by snow/artifacts, but for the longevity of the card).

wtf...... did you even read his first post?

Quote:

To measure your overclock use 3dmark. It will also be able to tell you if it is stable and also what benefits the overclock you have will do.

Quote:

Run 3d mark 2003 a few times to see if you have any artifacts or any sort of problems. It is also a good idea to play an intensive 3d game for bout an hour to check for any signs of problems.

7Enigma · 01-24-2005, 06:35 PM

Sorry, I thought it said 3dmark (not specifically 03). I would still mention that 03 seems to be more intensive than 05, but yes I misread.

Spiked · 02-10-2005, 02:23 PM

please do me a favor and add this to the main post. it probably needs to be there for people that dont know how to use it.

give thx to guru3d

Quote:

FAQ:
--------

Q. I dont see the temperature settings, is this due to my card?
A. The temp settings panel is only available with cards equipped with thermal sensors. Some cards that I know of have temp sensors are 5700 Ultra, 5800 Ultra, 5900 non-Ultra and Ultra, and 5950 ultra. But really it all comes down to the manufacturer. I have seen some 5700 and 5900 without temp sensor, but mainly the cheaper XT/LX/SE versions.

Q. The Fan always on doesn`t seem to work
A. The 'fan always on' option is for cards with the OTES (i.e. 5800U) or similar cooling system in which shuts off in 2d mode. It will force fan on even in 2D mode. Of course this means the fans on the hs/f be designed such a way that this option can work.

Q. I thought it enabled Opengl 2.0. It doesn't though.
A. OpenGL Shading Language 2.0 can only be enabled on 55.xx and higher Forceware drivers. It had not yet been implemented in older Detonator or pre 55 Forceware drivers.

Q. Where is the application profiles page?
A. It has been disabled to allow for OpenGL and Direct3d tabs. You can re-enable the application profiles page by changing its respective value to 1 in the coolbits file.

If you experience any minor problems, simply uninstall/reinstall your display driver. I would recommend using Driver Cleaner as well, especially when switching driver versions.

Unpack the achive (self extracting) and then in the setup directory simply click on the .reg file. To get to these options simply right-click on your desktop and go to 'NVIDIA Analog Display' (Win XP/2003). For Win 2000 and lower you may need to get to the Nvidia Control Panel the old way. Right click desktop > Properties > Settings > Advanced > GeForce xxxx

*NOTE: Coolbits 2 is not fully compatible with driver versions older than 55.xx. If you do happen to run this tweak with drivers older than 55.xx you will more than likely get errors at startup! To enable full compatibility, you must disable the options that are causing issues with your current setup.

nelvick · 02-17-2005, 07:31 AM

Good Post !!

ORL · 02-18-2005, 11:38 PM

I have succesfully oced my BFG5200 256mb asylum card however i am not at its peak, out of curiosity, forgive me of my lack of knowledge, how do i get or get into 3dmark, and i have read some on Open gl, i do not however see it as an option or file to open, i am using coolbits by the way. Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated, ty.

sdat1333 · 02-20-2005, 09:56 PM

how do i use that rar file? i tried opening it said it couldnt find the correct program to open it with. and whats the difference between coolbits and coolbits2?

Good Tutorial!

Spiked · 02-20-2005, 10:48 PM

you need a program called winrar. its free to download.

sdat1333 · 02-20-2005, 10:54 PM

Google Here I Come!!

Spiked · 02-20-2005, 10:58 PM

not that hard to find

Clandestino · 02-23-2005, 08:14 AM

This is the best short guide i have ever seen to overclock a 3d card.

**mesce** · 02-23-2005, 08:22 AM

Thanks Cladestino but don't forget I used some of John Spits best posting to make it what it is.

Spiked, in small writing at the bottom I may put that in, I don't want the guide to seem too long.

Casey Ess One · 02-23-2005, 09:43 PM

i got a XFX Geforce 6600 GT...what kind of HSF should i get for it?

Cappy · 03-23-2005, 08:11 PM

Nice tut mesce

Thank you very much

Flip_lx · 04-07-2005, 11:48 PM

ive a quick question. to overclock my msi 6600gt(pci) do i need one of the programs mentioned? when i go to desktop properties MSI has a tab "MSI Clock" with core Mhz 2d and 3d as well changing it with the sliders here be the same as if i downloaded powerstrip or rivatuner?

fant0mkid1412 · 04-07-2005, 11:53 PM

Quote:

To measure your overclock use 3dmark01/03/05. It will also be able to tell you if it is stable and also what benefits the overclock has done to your graphics card.

for 03, look closely on nature game test's turtle's back for artifacts

for 05, on flying ship test, look closely at the water after the dragon jumped over the ship and landed again into the water for artifacts

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